More thinking about Iran

The annual AIPAC convention convened yesterday in Washington. This year the focus of the convention is on Iran, and UN Ambassador John Bolton addressed Iran’s nuclear program in strong language. The Jerusalem Post reports:

The US will use “all the tools” at its disposal to stop the threat the Iranian regime poses. US ambassador to the UN John Bolton sent Sunday a tough message towards Teheran and urged the international community to take action quickly in order to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear capability.
“The longer we wait to confront the threat Iran poses, the harder and more intractable it will become to solve,” Bolton told a crowd of 5,000 AIPAC members at the lobby’s annual policy conference in Washington. On the eve of the discussion at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about referring Iran to the UN Security Council, ambassador Bolton warned that “failure by the Security Council to act on this matter would be a highly detrimental abrogation of the duties it is charged with under the UN Charter,” adding that “the Security Council must take due note that failure to act in a timely manner and with seriousness of purpose will do lasting damage to the credibility of the Council.”
Bolton, who has been a leading voice in the US administration against Iran’s nuclear ambitions, stressed that the US is not relying solely on the UN to solve the Iranian problem and will take other measures to make sure that the Iranian regime will be denied the ability to get nuclear weapons, including the use of international sanctions.
“It is noteworthy that many other governments have begun to include the word “sanctions” in their discourse when discussing Iran. The Iran regime must be made aware that if it continues down the path of international isolation, there will be tangible and painful consequences,” Bolton said.

This is tough talk indeed. Does “all the tools” really mean “all the tools”?